Thursday, April 30, 2009

Mortal and Venial Lists

Thursday, April 30, 2009 -- -- Week of 3 Easter, Year One

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 960)
Psalms 37:1-18 (morning) 37:19-42 (evening)
Daniel 5:13-30
1 John 5:13-20(21)
Luke 5:1-11

There is a little passage in 1 John that has helped produce a cottage industry of sin. "If you see your brother or sister committing what is not a mortal sin, you will ask, and God will give life to such a one -- to those whose sin is not mortal. There is sin that is mortal; I do not say that you should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is a sin that is not mortal."

Largely out of this reference, Roman Catholic moral theology created a teaching tradition of lists and commentary about mortal sins and venial sins. When that commentary is combined with a side reference from the book of Hebrews that mentions as "unforgivable" the sin against the Holy Spirit (which Hebrews does not define or elaborate), there can be great and fearful energy. Occasionally I have visited with people who are pathologically haunted by the fear that they have committed a mortal and unforgivable sin. They live with profound a vivid fears of eternal punishment and separation from those they love. Their level of anxiety and fear is sometimes pathological. I always invoke the aid of professional therapy, but even with therapy and supportive spiritual counsel, it can be extraordinarily difficult for people who have dwelt on these thoughts of sin to become grounded and centered.

There are a couple of principles that can help. First, forgiveness is always available. The constant teaching and experience of the Church is that God's forgiveness is ubiquitous and readily present. Nevertheless, I've met people whose level of guilt and doubt was so profound that they were unable to accept the free gift of grace through forgiveness. Sometimes the hook is from Hebrews: "What if my sin is really unforgivable?" I've known people who could not be convinced otherwise.

Second, Catholic moral theology stresses that mortal sin is not something we might do accidentally or without awareness. In that teaching, mortal sin is a grave matter, chosen intentionally, with full knowledge of its gravity. The sound advice about such circumstances is to repent, confess and be forgiven. If you can make amends of some sort, do so. (Often we can't.) Then, let it go.

But moral theologians need something to write about, and so there exist mountainous collections of lists of sins with various commentary about their seriousness and one's likelihood of damnation. For some people of sensitive or scrupulous temperament, these lists and commentaries can create pathology. Sometimes the lists themselves seem venial and almost silly. They can do great damage. One commentary based on some of the moral theology of Aquinas list four particularly grave sins that cry out to heaven for vengeance, and then lumps together homosexual relations along with murder, abusing the poor, and defrauding a worker of wages. From such traditions we've inherited homophobia that sometimes degenerates into violence and pograms. (It's ironic that there is not quite the same passion on behalf living wages among some of the most righteous sin police.) And how many poor Catholic children have been scared and haunted by the traditional teaching that missing Sunday mass is a grave sin that puts your soul in mortal danger?

There are some among us who need our conscience awakened, but I find that it is far more common that people are very hard on themselves. Spiritual Director - Psychiatrist Gerald May believes that the incredible harshness we have toward ourselves is at the core of so many of our troubles. Shame and fear are weapons for child-control and can plant abusive seeds within us as adults. He says, "The more cruel we are to ourselves, the more likely we are to be mean to others." Self-persecution is not healthy. He suggests that if we want a more loving life, we need to be a whole lot gentler towards ourselves.

I think we would be a healthier church and culture if we spent more time with the second section of 1 John 4 and less time with the second section of 1 John 5. Part of loving one another includes loving ourselves, for God's sake. And forgiving ourselves, as God does.

Lowell
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Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

About Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.


Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life
We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Boundaries

Wednesday, April 29, 2009 -- Week of 3 Easter, Year One
Catherine of Siena, 1380

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 960)
Psalms 38 (morning) 119:25-48 (evening)
Daniel 5:1-12
1 John 5:1-12
Luke 4:38-44

I haven't noticed it before, but Luke's account of the healing of Simon Peter's mother makes it appear to be another incident of Jesus' healing on the sabbath. Yesterday's story was about Jesus' sabbath appearance in the synagogue in Capernaum where he healed a man with an unclean spirit. That story sets up the sabbath conflict that Luke fully introduces in chapter six (the hungry disciples pluck grain, rub it and eat it on the sabbath; and Jesus asks "Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath...?" as he heals a man's withered arm).

Today's reading has Jesus leaving the synagogue and entering Simon Peter's house, a short journey in the little village. Simon's house is probably within a sabbath's walk of the synagogue -- 1,000-2,000 yards. Then, it appears that Jesus heals Simon's mother-in-law from her fever on the sabbath. Later as sabbath ends, he resumes his public work of healing: "As the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various kinds of diseases brought them to him; and he laid his hands on each of them and cured them."

At daybreak Jesus "departed and went to a deserted place." (Mark's account says he went there to pray.) When the crowds find him again, Jesus does not return to Capernaum, but leaves to go to other villages to "proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God... for I was sent for this purpose." There are still plenty of sick people in Capernaum, but Jesus leaves them in order to teach elsewhere.

Interesting boundaries. Many of the rabbis whose ministry was to teach and preach the religious traditions of God's people were scandalized that Jesus crossed the traditional boundaries protecting the sabbath as instructed in the Ten Commandments. Much of the conflict that swirled about Jesus centered on his tendency to place the needs of people above his inherited religious traditions.

Yet he freely walked away from the needs of the many in Capernaum in order to fulfill his primary mission to spread the Good News of God's reign.

So many of the religious conflicts of our day are boundary issues. Can women lead? Are gay people acceptable? What should our relationship with non-Christians be? Should the church be politically involved? When should we exercise discipline toward someone in our church?

Yesterday I talked about the centrality of love as our ethical rule. What does love draw us toward in the present moment? What does love look like in the present circumstances? Do that.

Out of love, Jesus heals on the sabbath. Out of love for God (and for himself) Jesus withdraws to pray. Out of love Jesus leaves to share the good news with others.

My thoughts go to our commemoration today of Catherine of Siena. It is easy to see her as an example of one radically motivated by love. She loved Christ so much that she experienced herself as being espoused to Jesus. She loved others so much that she was a nurse to lepers and those with cancer whom other nurses were reluctant to serve. She so loved the church so much that she became involved in efforts to heal the great papal schism between rival popes in Rome and Avignon.

But in her early life, many thought she was crazy, and her family tried to make her be like other girls. She spent inordinate time in prayer and meditation; she cut off her hair, which was beautiful, in protest of her family's interference in her religious practice, her religious excess some would say. I wonder what might have happened to her if she had lived in our century instead of the 14th. Somebody would have tried to fix her. She probably would have been medicated, maybe even institutionalized. They would have believed that their care for her was motivated by love. Yet they might have medicated the saintliness out of her.

Boundaries can be so tricky. When is love a form of healing and when is it destructive fixing? When is a tradition a practice of faithful discipline and when is it a barrier to compassion? How can we be courageous yet gentle enough in our love so that we promote good and do as little damage as possible? These are the questions in the boundary lands. It's important territory.

Lowell
_________

_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

About Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.


Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life
We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

God is Love

Tuesday, April 28, 2009 -- Week of 3 Easter, Year One

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 960)
Psalms 26, 28 (morning) 36, 39 (evening)
Daniel 4:28-37
1 John 4:7-21
Luke 4:31-37

"Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. ...God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them." 1 John 7-8, 16b

God is love. Simple but encompassing. Wherever love happens, that is the active presence of God in the world. Whenever anyone acts in love, that one is acting in communion with God. This is an embracing vision that can transcend the divisions or religion and tribe. Whoever loves is revealing the presence of God (the activity of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity) and living in the Spirit of God (the Third Person of the Holy Trinity). Muslims, Hindus, pagans and atheists all love. As they live in love, they live in God the Holy Trinity. As anyone lives in love, we live in God.

We say that Jesus reveals God as love. Jesus lived a life motivated entirely love. He performed the same saving, loving miracles and offered the same compassion to the Gentiles as he did to the members of his own religion and nation. When attacked and crucified, he offered only love and forgiveness in return. "God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him."

"No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit." The Spirit of God motivates and energizes our living and abiding in love.

It all starts with God's love for us. God is love. God reveals God's love for us by sending God's Son Jesus, who loves us to the end. God lives in us through God's spirit, which abides in us in love. It's all about love.

God's love is infinite, eternal and unqualified. God's love is perfect. God is perfect love. Perfect love, and only perfect love, casts out fear. When we know ourselves to be perfectly and completely loved by a perfect and infinite love, we can live fearlessly. This is the essence of our relationship with God. God loves us, therefore we are safe. Be not afraid. Be free! Free to love, even as God loves us.

The only commandment we have is to love. Jesus summarized the law in love: Love the Lord your God (who is love) with all your heart, mind, soul and strength; and love your neighbor as yourself. The new commandment is "Love one another." John's epistle says, "The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also."

It's all pretty simple. It's all about love. When faced with the question, "What should I do?" the answer is always, "Love." What does love draw us toward in the present moment? What does love look like in the present circumstances? Do that. All else is secondary.

What if acting in love would violate some important rule, tradition or commandment? Love always triumphs.

We see that in today's story from Luke. Jesus speaks in the synagogue on the Sabbath, and he astounds the listeners. A man with "the spirit of an unclean demon" cries out in challenge. Jesus exorcises him, cleansing him of his oppressive spirit. To some, he has violated one of the Ten Commandments, "Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy." Jesus' conflicts with the religious authorities have begun. Between love and law, Jesus chooses love.

Between love and power, Jesus chooses love. Between love and nation, Jesus chooses love. Between love and money, Jesus chooses love. Between love and family, Jesus chooses love. Between love and religion, Jesus chooses love. Between love and Bible, Jesus chooses love. Between love and reputation, Jesus chooses love. Between love and safety, Jesus chooses love. Between love and life, Jesus chooses love. Between love and fear, Jesus chooses love, and perfect love casts out fear.

To live in love is to live with complete and fearless freedom. To trust love and love's power is to trust God. Love is the most powerful force in the universe. Love will triumph and prevail. Therefore we can relax and just be, in love. To be in love is to be in God.

Lowell
_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

About Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.


Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life
We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas

Monday, April 27, 2009

Conscience and Revolution

Monday, April 27, 2009 -- Week of 3 Easter, Year One

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 960)
Psalms 25 (morning) 9, 15 (evening)
Daniel 4:19-27
1 John 3:19 - 4:6
Luke 4:14-30

"Conscience doth make cowards of us all." -- Hamlet

"...we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God..." -- 1 John 3:18f

I hope I don't misrepresent him, but I think Thomas Keating says that guilt is a good thing, for about thirty seconds. Our sense of guilt should move us to immediate repentance and then renew our intention to live rightly again. We should quickly accept God's forgiveness, and walk boldly into our future, cleansed, renewed, empowered.

False guilt is the slime that hangs on to us even after we have confessed and been forgiven, and it can suck the boldness and spine out of us. C.S. Lewis fantasizes the residents in heaven almost bragging about the terrible sins they committed while on earth as a means of praising God's greatness. "You think God forgave you of a lot, let me tell you what God forgave me of..." Humble bragging of the failures that God has restored. It is simply pride that insists that our behavior has been so bad that it disqualifies us from being fully alive.

God is greater than our hearts, greater than any guilt our hearts can accuse us of.
_____

How interesting it is what Jesus chooses to read when he enters the synagogue in Nazareth. In Luke's account, Jesus has been baptized, has finished his journey in the wilderness where he has wrestled with temptation over what kind of leader he will be. In Luke's gospel, the visit to the synagogue become's Jesus' inaugural announcement.

He can choose any reading from the Hebrew scripture that he wishes. He picks from Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." As everyone waits, Jesus speaks to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

Jesus announces his agenda as enacting God's care for the poor. He announces liberation and enlightenment. He denounces oppression. And he proclaims a Jubilee year. The Jubilee year is the year when all inequality is restored. (Leviticus 25:8-12) All debts are forgiven. All land that has been bought and sold reverts to the original equal distribution. If some have become poor or indentured through business and commerce and others have become wealthy and powerful through business and commerce, it is all reversed in the Jubilee year. Everyone is restored to equality.

This is radical stuff. It is classical, prophetic speech. It is an agenda that is both political and economic. And it is not well received. The people seek to treat Jesus as a false prophet and to kill him, but he escapes.

Before escaping, Jesus sends a couple of insulting barbs toward the congregation. He implies that their identity as God's chosen is meaningless. He pricks their pride, reminding them that Elijah blessed and fed a foreign widow during a famine that had left many widows in Israel hungry. He reminds them that Elisha healed a foreign leper when there were many lepers in Israel. God shows no favorites. God loves the foreigners and those of other religions as much as God loves us. In fact, Jesus points to God's preferential treatment toward those outsiders.

This is not "feel good religion." This is a revolution. And in Jesus' revolution, there is no place for pride, entitlement, or domination. The Nazareth congregation didn't want to hear this. I wonder if we do?

Lowell

Friday, April 24, 2009

Antiochus IV Epiphanes

Friday, April 24, 2009 -- Week of 2 Easter, Year One

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 958)
Psalms 16, 17 (morning) 134, 135 (evening)
Daniel 3:1-18
1 John 3:1-10
Luke 3:15-22

To understand the story of the fiery furnace and the three young men who refuse to worship the statue, it helps to know a bit of the contemporary politics happening at the time that the book of Daniel was written.

In 175 BCE Antiochus IV seized control of the Seleucid Empire which had been ruled by his brother. The Seleucid Empire was a large portion of the area conquered by Alexander the Great. It ran from Judea, through Syria east to modern Afghanistan and Pakistan. Antiochus IV served as the king of the region under the authority of the Roman Emperor. His primary rival was Ptolemy VI of Egypt, with whom he fought over rival territorial claims. Antiochus was nearly successful in conquering Egypt, deterred only by the heroic challenge of a single, elderly Roman senator who threatened war with Rome by drawing a "line in the sand" demanding from Antiochus an answer for the Senate before he crossed that line. (Thus the origin of the common statement.) Antiochus backed down.

While he was busy in Egypt, however, a civil war broke out in Judea. Many Hellenized Jews, especially in Jerusalem, had supported Antiochus' strategy of encouraging Greek-Hellenistic customs, and discouraging, or even outlawing, the local customs and cults as being divisive within his kingdom. These Hellenized Jews discouraged circumcision and other practices which tended to alienate Jews from the surrounding Greek world. During Antiochus' Egyptian campaign, there was a rumor that he had been killed. Jewish traditionalists used that rumor as an opportunity to attack the Hellenistic Jews in Jerusalem. Antiochus' High Priest was forced to flee. When Antiochus returned, he sacked Jerusalem and massacred thousands. He empowered the Hellenized Jews and forbade the practice of Judiasm.

Antiochus placed a statue of Zeus in the Jerusalem Temple and required observance of the Roman civil religion. The statue looked remarkably similar to Antiochus himself, and he gave himself the divine epithet "Epiphanes" -- "Manifest God."

The story in of the fiery furnace in Daniel starts with a golden statue that is almost 90 feet high and 10 feet wide. Although the story is set in the 6th century BCE Babylonian reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel making commentary about Antiochus IV Epiphanes in the 160's BCE. The story shows heroes from the past who were faithful to their Jewish heritage and practice, who trusted God to defend them as they challenged the arrogance of empire.

This is powerful political commentary. The book of Daniel served the Maccebean rebellion which started in 167 not unlike Thomas Paine served our own American Revolution. On December 24, 164 BCE, Judas Maccabeus restored the Jewish services of the Temple, an event memorialized annually in the feast of Hanukkah. Antiochus died the following year, after a sudden illness during a military campaign in the east. The Jewish struggle continued until it achieved a period of independence during the leadership of Judas' sons.

Why is all of this important? The call to faithfulness in the face of the arrogant claims of empire and power is a lesson appropriate for all times. I think it is also important to note that we have scriptural precedent for political commentary. Part of our faithfulness to God will be for us to bear witness before the powers and empires and to challenge their arrogance on behalf of God's values.

One other note. Among the bizarre fortune-tellers that come to us today with their various "end-time prophecies" (the "Left Behind" series, the "Late Great Planet Earth" and countless preachers who interpret the Bible with various apocalyptic formulae), Daniel is a favorite book for their strange theories. They manipulate the Biblical visions and images, as if Daniel were written to predict the coming history of our age. In doing so, they distort and insult the book of Daniel's original and true intent. The end-time fever has many bad side effects -- us/they polarization, rationalization for genocide, uncritical defense of Israel and complete disregard for Palestinian justice, and a trivialization of environmental stewardship as they eagerly await the destruction of the planet. Bad Biblical manipulation creates bad ethics and theology.

Lowell


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Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

About Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.


Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life
We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Docetism

Thursday, April 23, 2009 -- Week of 2 Easter, Year One

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 958)
Psalms 18:1-20 (morning) 18:21-50 (evening)
Daniel 2:31-49
1 John 2:18-29
Luke 3:1-14

How spiritualized should our religion be? Many Christians insist that the Church's concern should be with our immortal souls -- are you saved? Many say that the Church should not be involved in politics or economics or other dirty secular concerns which compromise our focus on things of the Spirit. If a preacher wants to get in trouble, talk about politics or mention sex from the pulpit. And restrain from talking about money, except in October during stewardship time.

One of the fundamental conflicts that confronted the early Church during its first few centuries concerned the reluctance of many Christians to allow their concept of Jesus to include the notion that he could have lived a fully human, material life -- being born from a woman, taking on flesh and blood, truly suffering and actually dying on the cross. Many people saw the whole journey of life as an imprisonment in the decaying flesh; human liberation was freedom from the bondage of the material order through release of our pure, imprisoned spirit. For them, Jesus was sent from God as a spiritual being and only appeared to take on flesh so he could accomplish our salvation from the flesh. As a divine being, he couldn't have corrupted himself by truly being trapped in material stuff; he wouldn't have suffered the ignoble business of being born of a woman or experiencing real human pain, and especially not human death. God is too good and pure for such corruptions. So the divine, spiritual Jesus only appeared to be a human being for the convenience of teaching us and leading us out of the corruptions of the flesh and the material world.

The letter of 1 John addresses those who believed in this manner and calls them "antichrist." The classical name for this heresy is Docetism, from the word "dokesis" meaning "appearance" or "semblance." The Epistles of John and the Gospel of John emphasize that Jesus the "man from heaven" (the Logos) came in the flesh. Last Sunday we read the story of the risen Jesus appearing to Thomas, inviting Thomas to put his finger into the physical wounds from the crucifixion. That story may have evolved as a challenge to the Docetic or Gnostic Christians, many of whom emphasized the Gospel of Thomas which offers a more spiritualized version of Jesus and Christianity.

The Christianity that eventually emerged as orthodoxy is a very earthy, sacramental religion which sees the created order as the vehicle for God's manifestation and as fully enveloped in Jesus' work of salvation. Politics and money are at the center of the gospel's concern.

So we see Luke's opening his history by setting Jesus' ministry into a very political context, naming the political figures who form the background of Jesus' challenge which inaugurates a new kingdom, a new political and economic reality which corresponds with how God would rule rather than how Caesar or Pilate or Herod or Caiaphas rule.

We see John announcing the coming of the one expected by the prophet Isaiah. When people ask John, "What then should we do?" he gives them concrete, material, political and economic answers. Share your clothing and food with those who lack. Deal honestly in your economic affairs, especially you tax collectors. Don't abuse your power, especially you soldiers. Concerns of the flesh are the concerns of the prophets; they are God's concerns and the concerns of God's Messiah.

And our story from Daniel is a very political piece. Daniel interprets the dream of the Babylonian king. The five parts of the statue probably symbolize the succession of five empires from Babylon to the time when Daniel was written (between 167 and 164 BCE). Daniel anticipates a new, independent Jewish state established by God. The book supports and encourages the Maccabean rebellion that is happening as it is being written. This is highly charged, contemporary political stuff.

If Christianity is to be true to its roots, our religion must be thoroughly immersed in the material, political, and economic realities of our day as well. Our faith offers not a spiritualized escape from the corrupted concerns of the material world, but a full embrace of our bodily lives with a call to justice and transformation. The late William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury declared that "Christianity is the most materialistic of all religions." Traditional Christianity says that God cares about our material concerns and that God is present in every aspect of creation. In our tradition, politics, health, and economic justice are supremely spiritual subjects.

Lowell
_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

About Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.


Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life
We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

The High Vison

Wednesday, April 22, 2009 -- Week of 2 Easter, Year One

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 958)
Psalms 119:1-24 (morning) 12, 13, 14 (evening)
Daniel 2:17-30
1 John 2:12-17
John 17:20-26

Today as we listen to the great prayer that John's gospel uses to focus the mission and vision of Jesus, we get a high and transcendent view of our relationship with God and with one another.

We are invited to participate in divine glory. We are invited into unity with God and with one another. Jesus uses powerful language. Jesus prays, "As you, Father are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us..." Later Trinitarian theology will pick this up by speaking of God as one unity of being in a relationship of three persons. Jesus draws us into that divine relationship of union.

Jesus assigns to us the same glory that he receives from the Father. "The glory that you have given me I have given them..."

The sense of identity between us and God is an experience of complete unity. Jesus prays that God will give us God's divine glory "so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one..." We are enveloped into the very being of God, energized by God's life and spirit, united as one with the divine. This is an exalted vision of the human condition, circumstance and potential. Our essential identity is to be in a life of ongoing union with God.

At the center of that union is love. Jesus prays to the Father that all people may know that God has "loved them even as you have loved me, ...so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them."

Talk about affirmation! In John's gospel, Jesus intends to teach us that we are one with God who loves us with a divine love.

I know many people who grew up being told that the main purpose of the Christian religion was to convince people that they are essentially bad and sinful, and to frighten them with a conviction that everybody deserves to go to hell. That seems such a strange way to shape, and I would say trivialize, the gospel. It posits such an odd view of God, of Jesus and of humanity, so out of touch with the vast witness of scripture.

The vision of Jesus in John's gospel is just the opposite. We are loved with the same love that God the Father loves the Son. We are united in the same life and glory that is union with God, the life and glory that Jesus reveals. John focuses that identity and call in the new commandment: "Love one another."

This is our true identity, purpose and destiny. John contrasts this life in union with God in Jesus with life in the "flesh" or in the "world." The world is the place of darkness and unbelief, the condition of not knowing our essential union in God's love. Jesus brings light that casts out darkness, bread that satisfies, life that is eternal. It is the gift of union, the gift of the Son who is sent from the Father to reveal to us our essential unity with the divine. All that is necessary is to accept the gift. Accept the gift of identity -- we are one with the divine; we are given life with one another in union with God. At the core of everything is love. Love one another. Walk in love. Love God and be one with God.

It is a high and glorious vision for our humanity, all humanity.

Lowell
_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

About Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.


Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life
We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

The Resolve of Love

Tuesday, April 21, 2009 -- Week of 2 Easter, Year One
Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1109

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 958)
Psalms 5, 6 (morning) 10, 11 (evening)
Daniel 2:1-16
1 John 2:1-11
John 17:12-19

"Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light, and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling." 1 John 2:10

It is not a bad practice to challenge oneself each day -- Today I resolve to love each person you bring into my path. In the most poignant moments of the scriptures, it all boils down to love. Jesus summarizes the entire law in the commandment to love God, neighbor and self. At the end of John's gospel, he gives his friends the new commandment, "Love one another." Love is the light that incarnates God's Spirit perpetually.

In the great prayer of Jesus on the night of his betrayal which we read from today in John's gospel, Jesus connects the word of love that Jesus has given to us with joy. "I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves." How might joy be fully manifest if I were to live just this one day completely focused on loving each person God brings into my path?

Instead of being motivated by anxieties, pressures, and to-do lists, what if our grounding motivation were as simple as walking in love. Anxieties can melt in the focus on the present opportunity that love presents. Pressures can be redirected toward God if our motivation is solely about love rather than whatever fear creates pressure. As St. Paul said, "Perfect love casts out fear." And to-do lists could be prioritized by the urgency and standards of love. What is the next best thing I can do for love's sake.

During the century of the Black Death of plague, a century rent by war, violence and church scandal, Dame Julian of Norwich wrote of the revelations that God gave to her. "Wouldst thou learn the Lord's meaning in this thing? Learn it well. Love was his meaning. Who showed it thee? Love. What showed he thee? Love. Wherefore showed it he? For Love. Hold thee therein and thou shalt learn and know more in the same. Thus it was I learned that Love was our Lord's meaning."

Love is the easy yoke that makes our burdens light. There is something restful in having a single minded focus. Dame Julian heard that burdenless word from God, telling her, "I can make all things well; I will make all things well; I shall make all things well; and thou canst see for thyself that all manner of things shall be well." It is the resurrection message of Jesus. Love triumphs over all. Love will triumph over all. Therefore, walk in love.

Lowell
_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

About Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.


Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life
We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas

Friday, April 10, 2009

The Time of Trial

Friday, April 10, 1009 -- Good Friday

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 956)
Psalms 95* and 22 (morning) 40:1-14(15-19), 54 (evening)
Wisdom** 1:16 - 2:1, 12-22 or Genesis 22:1-14
1 Peter 1:10-20
John 13:36-38 (morning) John 19:38-42 (evening)
* for the Invitatory
** found in the Apocrypha

I'll be on vacation next week and won't be sending Morning Reflections.
Next Morning Reflection will be Tuesday, April 21

Good Friday services at St. Paul's today are at 12:15 and 7:00 p.m.
The Children's Stations of the Cross is at 5:30 p.m.

Our gospel reading for Good Friday opens with a an ominous conversation. Peter asks Jesus where Jesus is going. Jesus tells Peter that he can't follow him now, but will follow afterward. "Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you." Peter means it. He is utterly sincere. But he has not faced the time of trial yet. Jesus speaks sad words of prophecy: "Will you lay down your life for me? Very truly, I tell you, before the cock crows, you will have denied me three times."

Many of us have earnestly offered our lives to God. We have given ourselves sincerely to the way of Jesus. Our motivation is good; our intention is sincere. It is a good sentiment.

What is most important is that God is faithful. What is most significant is that Jesus gives his life for us. Even if we are unfaithful, even if we lose heart and betray him in the time of trial, God is faithful and Jesus is with us to restore us. At the end of John's gospel, the risen Jesus will restore Peter by letting him reassert his love for Jesus three times. Jesus will commission Peter to feed his sheep and tend his lambs.

Had Judas been willing to live with his failure rather than limit his shame in his act of control by taking his own life, Judas too could have been restored like Peter. Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

Fear and control are a deadly combination. The reading from Wisdom reminds us of how threatening we find those people who are more righteous than we, and how resentful we become toward those who show us our faults and failures. We love to humiliate and test the prophets.

But the real test is our own. We have the opportunity to look at "things into which angels long to look!" the epistle of Peter reminds us. Writing during a time of trial, the anonymous author urges his readers to "prepare your minds for action; discipline your selves; set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed."

Trust God no matter what. Jesus shows us how. We walk with him on Good Friday. The worst will happen. Yet there will be more. "God did not abolish the fact of evil. He transformed it. He did not stop the crucifixion. He rose from the dead." (Dorothy Sayers)

Lowell
_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

About Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.


Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life
We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Compulsion

Thursday, April 9, 2009 -- Maundy Thursday

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 956)
Psalms 102 (morning) 142, 143 (evening)
Jeremiah 20:7-11
1 Corinthians 10:14-17, 11:27-32
John 11:1-11(12-26)

Sometimes we feel an inner compunction that compels us to action. I'm not talking about the kind of compulsions that are unhealthy and destructive. I'm talking about those things we have to do because our conscience drives us. We see something that is wrong -- some injustice or dishonesty -- and we must act. We see some suffering, and we must respond. Our heart is moved by some need, and we act. Often there is a cost involved. Most things worth doing exact a toll, even if it is only time. Sometimes they provoke conflict or even danger.

Jeremiah has been given the bitter task to speak unwelcome news of judgment and condemnation. He meets resistance and mockery. He complains to God about his lose-lose situation. If he speaks, he becomes isolated from his community and faces life-threatening risks. But if he ceases to speak, then, he says, "within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones." He can't hold it back.

He faces either the terror within provoked by God's speaking to his conscience, or the terror without created by the hostility that his words provoke. He commits his charge with God. He trusts that God will be with him "like a dread warrior" to prevent his defeat.

We see Jesus moved deeply at the death of Lazarus. "He whom you love is ill." To return to Judea to see Lazarus means to risk death. There are those in Judea who intend to stone him for blasphemy. But Jesus insists, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him." We know the rest of the story in John's gospel. The raising of Lazarus will be the act that tips the hand of Jesus' enemies. They will determine to kill him. Thomas understands the risk. "Let us also go, that we may die with him."

Something inside Jesus compels him toward this action. Unlike Jeremiah, who trusted God and was spared, this action will cost Jesus his life. God will not save him from painful punishment and death. The storm clouds gather.

I find the Eucharist compelling. There is something transforming about the ritual meal by which we participate in the life of Jesus. In this sacrament I experience union with God through Jesus, a sense of personal coherence, union with those who share this mystical food, and by extension, union with the entire creation. As Paul says in today's reading, "Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread."

Yet Paul warns us to be conscious as we participate in this profound act. "Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup." The Eucharist may be the most profound act that we do as humans. It demands our alert consciousness and our willing conscience.

Tonight is the night of Jesus' betrayal. Tonight we remember when he took the bread, broke it, and gave it to his disciples; we remember when he took the wine and shared it as a participation in his life and death.

Life and death matters. God compels us into these things.

Wake up. Take heart.

Lowell
_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

About Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.


Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life
We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Listening to Paul

Wednesday, April 8, 2009 -- Holy Week

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 956)
Psalms 55 (morning) 74 (evening)
Jeremiah 17:5-10, 14-17
Philippians 4:1-13
John 12:27-36

There are few passages in the New Testament that I enjoy more than today's reading from Philippians. I'm particularly drawn to the paragraph beginning at 4:4 ("Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice...) and the following paragraph that urges us to focus on the right ("Finally, beloved, whatever is true, what ever is honorable, whatever is just...)

But as I re-read these familiar and comforting words today, it was their context that struck me. Paul writes these words in the middle expressions of conflict and hardship.

Yesterday he complained of those who "live as enemies of the cross of Christ." He might be speaking of fellow Christians who followed a spiritualized Jesus; they taught a theology that downplayed the human and physical suffering of Jesus. Paul may be struggling in a theological battle for the very soul of the future church. Was Jesus really human? Or was he simply divine, adopting the form of a human body for a while and then escaping back to heaven before the cross, while the empty shell of a body suffered and died. These kinds of debates shook the early church with profound division.

Then Paul references a more personal and immediate conflict. Two leading women in the congregation have a disagreement. They have been companions and workers with Paul, and Paul regards both of them as loyal friends "whose names are in the book of life." Yet they are in the midst of some sort of a fight. Paul writes, "I urge Euodia and I urge Synthyche to be of the same mind in the Lord." Paul doesn't take sides, but he urges them toward unity.

These two references about struggles introduce the exhortation to "Rejoice." Out of Paul's concern for "enemies of the cross" and his concern about the division between two leading women, he nonetheless turns his spirit toward rejoicing. "Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

If we skip to the later portion of today's reading, we see Paul living his own words. He thanks the congregation for expressing their concern for him. Then we get a peek at some of the pressures he lives with. He makes light of his struggles, "for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. ...I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry... I can do all things through him who strengthens me."

Paul expresses this spirit of equanimity just after he has urged us to keep our minds elevated. "Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you."

We see the God of peace working in and through Paul. Though he lives with conflicts, pressures and need, he is able to live thankfully, contentedly, within the peace of God.

Rejoice. Do not worry. Focus on the good. Be thankful.

Peace.

Lowell
_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

About Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.


Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life
We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Deep Complaints

Tuesday, April 7, 2009 -- Holy Week

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 956)
Psalms 6, 12 (morning) 94 (evening)
Jeremiah 15:10-21
Philippians 3:15-21
John 12:20-26

Jeremiah speaks with deep pathos. His life's calling has been to speak God's word of judgment and impending doom to a community that doesn't want to hear bad news. His mission has been costly to him. We hear his hurt and bitterness today.

"Woe is me, my mother, that you ever bore me, a man of strife and contention to the whole land! ...All of them curse me. I did not sit in the company of merrymakers, nor did I rejoice; under the weight of your hand I sat alone, for you had filled me with indignation."

Alienated and resented, Jeremiah has borne the weight of resentment. That's what happens to whistleblowers and to those who reveal unpopular and uncomfortable truths. Dry and brittle, Jeremiah speaks to God of his discontent, accusing God with these honest words, "Truly, you are to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail."

Maybe we gasp when we read those words. Did he really say that? Can he say that? Can he tell God that God is like a deceitful brook who fails us? Can he say that and live?

Yes he can. God does not strike him down. God does not banish him from God's presence. But God also does not relent. The mission stands. "If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless, you shall serve as my mouth. ...And I will make you to this people a fortified wall of bronze. ...I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked."

Jeremiah has laid his complaint before God. Jeremiah speaks from the depths of his heart. God hears and remains with him. Even so, there is no avoiding the hard task before him. Yet God will be with him.

No wonder our lectionary invites us to walk with Jeremiah during Holy Week when we walk with Jesus along the way of the cross. The path of truth cannot be bypassed. We have to walk the road we are given. "Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. ...Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also."

Not many of us are called to the kind of witness that Jeremiah and Jesus gave. But we can be attentive to the prophets among us. We can listen to those who tell us what we don't want to hear. We can hear with respect the accusations of those who make unpopular and uncomfortable charges against us and against our lifestyles. We can heed the word of the prophets and change our behavior.

Whenever we are given a portion of the truth to shoulder, a piece of the cross to bear, we can bear it with courage. And if we need to, we can speak to God honestly about our deepest disappointments, including our disappointment in God. God may not back off; but God will be with us.

Lowell
_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

About Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.


Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life
We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas

Monday, April 06, 2009

Walking the Walk

Monday, April 6, 2009 -- Holy Week

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 956)
Psalms 51:1-18(19-20) 69:1-23
Jeremiah 12:1-16
Philippians 3:1-14
John 12:9-19

"Why does the way of the guilty prosper? ...How long will the land mourn, and the grass of every field wither?" Jeremiah's complaints sound as modern as today's newspapers. Some of the same people who created economic ruin by their greed and manipulation give themselves bonuses and payouts with the money intended to correct the problems they created. Scientific consensus warns us that our greed and mismanagement of our planet's resources now threaten to unleash potentially catastrophic climate changes, and for many it's "business as usual."

We probably are getting the same response from God that Jeremiah got -- It's gonna get worse before it gets better. "Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard, they have trampled down my portion, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness." There is distant hope for the future. But in the present, we reap what we have sowed.

Paul also looks at some of his losses. He has embraced losing a former way of life. He has changed his entire orientation. Though it has cost him everything, from his former perspective, he regards that as nothing in comparison with his new path.

He sounds a bit like those who have dropped out of the consumerist mentality that so dominates our culture. He sounds like those who are energized about simplifying their lives and minimizing their impact on our planet. There is a light in eyes of those today who have already shifted their perspective and embraced a new style of ecological living and communal responsibility.

We have entered Holy Week. We retrace that passage of Jesus through the brokenness of humanity and its deadly consequences. We will see him face the bitter consequences of greed and manipulation of power that destroys our society and planet. He will take upon himself those consequences, and he will return only love.

Jesus invites us to walk the same walk. To take up our cross and follow him. How do we live lives energized by love rather than greed or power or pride? How do we care for our neighbors and our planet in this new way? How can we be the hope that Jeremiah, Paul and Jesus offered to their broken generations? We face that agenda every Holy Week?

Lowell
_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

About Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.


Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life
We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas

Friday, April 03, 2009

Today's Readings

Friday, April 3, 2009 -- Week of 5 Lent, Year One
Richard, Bishop of Chichester, 1253

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 956)
Psalms 95* and 22 (morning) 141, 143:1-11(12) (evening)
Jeremiah 29:1, 4-13
Romans 11:13-24
John 11:1-27, or 12:1-10 *for the Invitatory

Up late last night. Away early this morning. Didn't write a reflection today.

But today is the feast of Richard of Chichester, whose words inspired the song "Day by Day." His prayer --

Dear Lord, of thee three things I pray:
To see thee more clearly,
Love thee more dearly,
Follow thee more nearly.

Lowell

_____________________________________________

Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

About Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.


Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life
We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas


Thursday, April 02, 2009

You Are Gods

Thursday, April 2, 2009 -- Week of 5 Lent, Year One
James Lloyd Breck, Priest, 1876

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 956)
Psalms 131, 132, [133] (morning) 140, 142 (evening)
Jeremiah 26:1-16
Romans 11:1-12
John 10:19-42

Jesus is in the middle of a stinging controversy. On the one hand, he has done something wonderful and laudable -- he has healed a man who was born blind. On the other hand, he has done his work in violation of the conventional understanding of the sabbath law. When he picked up mud and made it into a paste, he violated the commandment to do no work (the 4th of the Ten Commandments). As he was told elsewhere in our accounts, you have six days to do your healing; leave it alone on the sabbath. There is a division over him. He did something good, but in doing it he violated our sacred tradition.

In the ensuing dispute, as John's Gospel composes it, Jesus uses exalted language to defend himself, culminating in the words, "The Father and I are one." To everyone's ears this is blasphemy; now he has violated the first commandment. They prepare to stone him, the traditional punishment for blasphemy.

Then Jesus offers a fascinating argument. He quotes from Psalm 82:6 -- "Now I say to you, you are gods..." (the rest of the verse reads, "...and all of you children of the Most High.") Jesus claims this word for God's people. Then he reiterates his relationship to God the Father, renewing his claim, "I am God's Son." He argues, if the scripture said "you are gods" to the people who received it, how much more may I claim my identity as God's Son since I have been sent by God?

Then he returns again to the signs. He says, in effect, "Even if you don't believe my words, look at the good works I do. These are signs of God's presence. Let the good works stand and speak for me."

There are two invitations here for us. The first is the invitation to do good. Whenever we do good works -- works of love, compassion, healing and reconciliation -- we too are doing the works of God who sent us. We are signs of God's presence.

The second invitation is to accept our identity as being one with God. We also are children of God. Elsewhere Jesus sets up the equivalence -- you and I are one; you live in me as I live in you; and I am one with the Father, therefore we are all united within the dynamic life of the Divine.

Paul reflects on a similar reality that he lives within the early Church: his kinfolk the Jews have largely rejected the mission that Paul continues in Jesus' name. Yet look what goodness God brings out of their rejection. God opens the message of grace and inclusion universally. "Through (the Jews') stumbling, salvation has come to the Gentiles... Now if their stumbling means riches for the world, ...how much more will their full inclusion mean!"

Paul is certain that God's triumph will be total. God has already saved the Jews, and God's promise will be fulfilled despite what you may see now. Their rejection has opened the door for God to save all. (Another of Paul's statements of universal salvation.) All are children of God.

The invitation to identity is clear, spoken in several ways. You are all gods. You are all children of the Most High. God lives in you and you live in God. Jesus and the Father are one, and you are one with Jesus. The Gentiles are given the same identity as the Jews: We are all children of God. And even if this identity is rejected, God is faithful. God has ways to accomplish God's will. God will not lose even one of all that God has created or even one whom God loves. And God loves all.

So be who you are -- God's beloved, one with God, sharing the divine life of God, living in the heart of God so that your heart beats as God's heart.

Lowell
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Audio podcast: Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week. Click the following link: Morning Reflection Podcasts

About Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.


Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life
We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas